Listen Before You Download

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Look at the top of this blog, and you will see the words, “new discoveries and old favorites”. The new discoveries are always exciting, but it occurs to me that I have been neglecting the old favorites. These are the artists and songs that formed my musical tastes in the first place. These songs spoke to me early on, and gave me my standards of what a song can and should be. One post is not sufficient to give you a full picture, but let me share a few examples.

The Grateful Dead were my first favorite band. At my age, it could have been the Beatles as it was for so many of my friends. It could have been the Jackson 5, but I never really liked them. There were many other choices then, but for me it was the Dead. Jerry Garcia didn’t always sing on key, but I always felt, listening to his voice, that he was a good friend. And he told me stories of the West, of flawed heroes and sympathetic scoundrels. I think that my life-long love of folklore may have started with the Grateful Dead. Later, I would appreciate the diverse musical genres that made up the Dead’s sonic pallet, but, on first hearing, I just knew that the music was exciting and the words took me to another place.

I have not neglected to cover Joni Mitchell here. Jackson Browne was the other artist who shaped my early ideas of what personal songwriting could do. Like Mitchell, Browne’s songs are poetry, and Fountain of Sorrow rang especially true for me when I first heard it. The imagery and use of metaphor here sounds perfect to me.

By the time I first heard Bonnie Raitt, I already knew a thing or two about the blues. First the Rolling Stones and then Eric Clapton with Cream sent me off in search of their influences. I found this rich musical heritage from Chicago, and I thought I was an expert. Raitt taught me otherwise. I think I had heard a slide guitar before, but only plugged in. And I had never heard such an unusual combination of instruments before. Also, I had barely heard any female blues artists at all. So Raitt taught me about arranging, and that no instrument was off limits. By and by, I would learn about the blues sounds that came before World War II, but first I would enjoy the richness of Raitt’s performances. Give It Up or Let Me Go is a fine example of all of this.

When the three previous songs came out, Lyle Lovett’s music was a long way off. Before him, Tom Waitts and Randy Newman had already shown me that there was a wider range of subjects available for songs than I had known. And either of them could have been in this post instead of Lovett. But Family Reserve also has a spiritual element that neither Waitts nor Newman do as well. This is a song about death of course, but it is also an expression of faith in a hereafter where family and old friends await.

Of course, the Spotlight Song of the Week is always a relatively new discovery. But this is about as close to an old favorite as I can get in this space. A quick look through the archives reveals that I have never had a song here by Carolaan Sollebello before. But she has been part of Red Molly, who I reviewed here twice. I had the pleasure of meeting them at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and I heard the announcement of the worst-kept secret of the festival: Carolann Sollebello is leaving Red Molly. They will carry on with a new member, and Sollebello will resume her solo career, while staying close enough to home to be with her family. I caught a solo set by Sollebello at one of the after parties at the festival, and I especially loved Papa’s Mandolin. The song is filled with love, and describes Sollebello’s inspiration for being a musician. I am pleased to be able to present the song here, and I look forward to reviewing Sollebello’s next album.

Subscribe

Contributors

Come Visit Me

Submission Guidelines

Music: Contact me first by e-mail, and include a brief description of your music. Do not send mp3s at first, but please include a link to where I can hear a stream of a complete song or two, at least. Be prepared to send a physical CD if I respond with a request for it.

Artist Fund Drives: If possible, contact me at least a week before your fund drive is to begin. Describe the project you are raising funds for, and give the start and end dates for the drive. If you are makng an album, send me an imbed code for a stream of a song the represents the sound you are after on the new album. This song can be a demo of a song you intend to put on the album, or a song from a previous album. Also send me a link where readers of Oliver di Place can go to make a donation.

Videos: Contact me by e-mail, with a link to the video and an imbed code. If possible, I would like to have the CD if I decide to cover the video, so that I can include a few words about the album in my coverage.

Books: I will consider books about the kinds of music I cover here, novels about musicians and the musical life, and books that help musicians to navigate the music business. Send me an e-mail and describe the book. Be prepared to send a physical copy if I request it. I will read any book I decide to cover in its entirety, so it may take some time for my coverage to appear, and I will be very limited as to how many books I can cover.

Please Support the Artists

I choose songs for my reviews and Spotlight features because I feel that the entire album is worthwhile. So please, if you like something enough to download it, consider following the purchase link provided, and purchase additional mp3s, or, even better, the entire album. Many of the artists featured here will use whatever money they make to finance their next recording project, so your support will help to assure that there is more wonderful music here for us all to enjoy. On behalf of the artists, thank you.

Posting Policy

Posts are here for informational purposes only. If you hear something you like, use the purchase links and support the artists. Album reviews will remain up as long as they are still drawing new traffic. Other posts will remain up for about two weeks. Copyright holders: if you would like your song removed, please use the e-mail above, and I will honor your request promptly.

Note to Commenters

All comments are screened before appearing here, to prevent the appearance of spam. I welcome comments that are in respectful disagreement with mine, but I am looking for a conversation, not an argument. I regret that, due to my own ignorance of other languages, I can only post comments that are in English.